The doctoral and graduate students in the computer laboratory completed the work faster than expected, and some of them completed part of the work they were responsible for the next day.

This kind of enthusiasm for work will definitely be admired by the boss of the enterprise, but Wang Hao is not the boss of the enterprise, and he does not encourage everyone to do so.

The rapid progress of the work of graduate students and doctoral students also gave Wang Hao and Zhang Zhiqiang some headaches, because the code part they were responsible for had not yet been completed.

The two simply stayed up late, worked until twelve o'clock in one go, and then simply slept in the laboratory.

I woke up the next morning, had a simple breakfast, and went back to work.

The next day, most of the work was debugging the program, including packages handed in by others, including the code of their own department.

After all the code is debugged, you can connect it part by part, and the process of debugging and running and improving it is slower than the process of code code.

Then, after another two days, the various parts were almost docked, and then the first overall operation was carried out.

"Successfully output the result, not bad, what does this '0.03%' mean?" Zhang Zhiqiang still didn't understand, "Is it said that the Mason number corresponding to this number is the probability of the Mersen prime?" ”

"Numbers have no probability, if they are prime, they are prime, and if they are not prime, they are not prime." Wang Hao said, "However, what you understand is not wrong, it is just a number output by an evaluation system." ”

"0.03 is too low."

Wang Hao said, "It's already very high, although these numbers will definitely be brushed down." ”

While the two were talking, Li Ming from the Science and Technology Department suddenly came over, "Wang Hao, hurry up to the experimental building of the College of Science, there is a reporter who wants to interview you." I searched for you for a while but couldn't find it, and only after asking did I know that you were here. ”

"Do I have to be interviewed?" Wang Hao was a little reluctant, he felt that the work in hand was more important.

Li Mingdao, "It's not necessary, the provincial TV station, let's deal with a few words." ”

"Okay."

Wang Hao thought that he should also take a little rest, and when he coped with the reporter's interview, he took a break, so he followed Li Ming.

The interview took place in a small conference room in the laboratory building of the Faculty of Science.

The reporter of the provincial TV station was already waiting there, and even the background of the interview had been arranged, and a brand new desk had been moved, and Wang Hao was sitting behind the desk, with a world map in the background.

He sat down for an interview.

The reporter's question still revolves around the Atin conjecture, and the study of the Atin constant is the most popular mathematical topic in recent times, even abroad, there are many, many people talking about it.

This is the greatest achievement in the field of international number theory in recent years.

The last time such an influential result appeared was the proof of the 'weakened twin prime conjecture' by a Chinese mathematician at Ameriken.

Wang Hao is likely to win an international-level mathematics award for this research, and some domestic awards can be said to have been booked, and winning the award is just a matter of time.

The interview revolves around the proof of the Attin constant, and Wang Hao also talked about the significance of the existence of the Ating constant, "In a certain sense, this shows that prime numbers also have laws. ”

"This pattern is not necessarily like other numbers, and what we have to do is to find out the underlying pattern."

"It's important."

Wang Hao made a simple explanation and explained the importance of basic mathematical research, "Many people may ask, why bother to study these? ”

"You may have heard that there are institutions that calculate the π of pi and calculate it to hundreds of billions, trillions, why?"

"Of course, that is meaningless to reality, but it can help human beings understand the universe in which they live, and the world in which they live is more aware and clearer."

"This constant calculation is done in the hope of seeing a result that pi can never be exhausted."

"But what if it's all over? What if the π proved to be a finite cyclic decimal by calculation? Both of these possibilities are very scary, not only to show that there is no real circle, but also to show that our universe may not be a real universe, just like some scientists have described, the universe is probably just a bunch of code, and we are just virtual. ”

"The study of the distribution of prime numbers is very similar, and the most basic mathematics and numbers are the description of the universe."

"In the most basic field, we need to continue to explore ......"

Wang Hao used a simple metaphor to talk about the importance of research, and felt that he was interviewed to be extraordinary, otherwise he would explain a bunch of things related to Atin's constant.

Although he knew that the vast majority of people would certainly not be interested in it.

The reporter asked the last question, "After completing the argument for Artin's constant, do you have a plan for your next research?" Can you talk about it? ”

Wang Hao thought for a while and said, "I am now studying Mersenne primes, hoping to gain something in this field." ”

Then he briefly explained the number of Masonne primes, and the interview ended.

……

The provincial TV station still attaches great importance to Wang Hao's interview.

Northern Xinjiang Province is not a major academic province, and there are very few very well-known scholars, and even those born in Northern Xinjiang have gone to the eastern coastal cities or simply abroad.

To put it simply, Northern Xinjiang Province can't retain top talent.

Now there is a young professor of mathematics at Xihai University, who has completed the world's top number theory achievements, which is definitely worth mentioning.

The provincial television station broadcast the entire interview as a scientific program, and also broadcast excerpts from it as news.

At the same time, the online news media affiliated to the provincial TV station, Meager also published relevant reports and released them.

The provincial TV station attaches great importance to the news, but in fact, it has not caused much turmoil, because good multimedia has already made reports, and Wang Hao is not the first time to be interviewed.

However, some people who paid attention quickly grasped the key point after reading the report.

"Wang Hao is studying Mersenne primes." Many people feel that it is a pity.

Someone even commented on the Internet, "Wang Hao went to study Mason prime, and another mathematical genius is about to disappear." ”

"Look at the mathematical geniuses of the past, it would be great to have one achievement in the field of number theory, and there will be no more results if you continue to research."

"Wang Hao should learn from Tao Zhexuan, don't touch the number theory, don't touch the number theory."

"I remember Tao Zhexuan was interviewed once and said that he was going to study the twin prime conjecture, and it didn't take long for someone to complete the proof of weakening the twin prime conjecture...... Luck accompanies him. ”

“……”

Wang Hao was not in the mood to pay attention to public opinion, and after he was interviewed, he immediately returned to the computer laboratory and worked with Zhang Zhiqiang to make the final improvement of the entire program.

It's another day.

By the afternoon of the next day, they were sure that the program was ready to run on their computers.

After a brief discussion, they directly approached Dean Chen Qinghua and applied to use the two newly purchased large servers.

The computer laboratory recently purchased two servers, spending 8 million dollars, to put it bluntly, a large number of processors, hard disks and other hardware collections, the computing power is quite strong, each server computing power, more than 300 10,000 yuan desktop computers.

These two servers are intended to be used as the core equipment of the computer lab.

Chen Qinghua was a little hesitant at first when he heard that they were applying to use the server, they were not doing a computer lab project, and most importantly, he didn't think that a group of people could find the Mersen prime by writing a program.

But after careful consideration, he agreed.

Chen Qinghua's main consideration is Wang Hao, Zhang Zhiqiang is not in the scope of care at all, Wang Hao is a top algorithm expert, and he works at Xihai University, even if it is just to befriend Wang Hao, it doesn't matter if they use the server.

He generously agreed, and also issued a consent to use instructions, and wrote out the specific use of the use and signed and sealed.

The server of the computer laboratory is the public property of the laboratory, and it is also purchased by the school for the development of the laboratory.

After Zhang Zhiqiang got the right to use, he was very excited to take Wang Hao over, he has been thinking about the two servers, but because there is no project at hand that needs to use the server, it is a pity that he has not used it at all.

You can try it this time.

The two new servers were built in the so-called central lab, which was actually converted from a conference room on the sixth floor.

They turn on the computer and enter the program, and with the support of powerful hardware, the program runs quickly.

At the same time, each data is also exported to a file and classified.

The input value of this program is more than 60 million numbers, which can quickly detect the prime number in it, and enter the real analysis program, and the output is the 'prime number' and 'the probability that the corresponding Merson number is a Mersen prime number'.

Probability, is the decision data of a program.

The highest probability is set at 10%, the lowest probability is only 0.01%, and the prime number of most outputs corresponds to 0.01%.

However, the accuracy of the judgment is not so high, for example, the 49th known Mersenne prime, M74207281, the probability of the program determining that it is a prime number is only about 8%.

The 50th, M77232917, has a probability of about 6%.

The 51st Mersenne prime found by Patrick Roche M82589933 less than 9% of the time.

Although the program is not so accurate, it is clear that a few numbers are much more likely to be determined than others.

The first file output of the program contains all prime numbers with a probability of more than 1% and the probability of the decision.

The second file contains 0.1% to 1% primes.

The third file contains 0.05 to 0.1% prime numbers.

The other primes are discarded and output to the last file.

"Let's start by testing numbers below 100 million." Wang Hao set it up.

Zhang Zhiqiang is writing a program to connect the output file to the custom entry of Prime software, so that the prime number of 'file one' can be input into the custom detection.

This way, you don't have to keep staring at the program and typing it one by one.

Wang Hao looked at the server host carefully, and asked curiously, "We use these two servers to test the primality of a number of tens of millions of digits, how long does it take to calculate a number?" ”

"Not necessarily." Zhang Zhiqiang said, "If it is fast, a few seconds is enough, for example, this number can be directly divisible by a small number, such as 3, 7, but it is only an extreme exception, most of them still have to use the Lucas-Reimer test, until the detection of the end, if it is fast, it will take more than ten hours." ”

“…… So slow? ”

"It's been fast." Zhang Zhiqiang grinned vigorously, it was a number of tens of millions, the amount of calculation was beyond imagination, and the speed of only ten hours was already very fast, if it were not for the Lucas-Lemmer test, it would be impossible to detect it.

"Okay."

Wang Hao pursed his lips and nodded, "So we're just waiting?" Let it run slowly, at this rate, it will take at least a month to calculate the first file, right? ”

"Almost."

Zhang Zhiqiang calculated the time and felt that he should talk to Dean Chen again, it doesn't matter if the server is used, but it seems a bit too much to use it for a month.

"Forget it, let's go tomorrow!" He shook his head as he thought about it.

……

Wang Hao and Zhang Zhiqiang went out for a simple meal, and agreed to go to the laboratory the next day to send money to the participating students.

Then it was time to rest.

After being busy for several days, Wang Hao also felt very tired, filled his stomach and returned home, and fell asleep on the bed.

Ten hours later.

Across the globe.

Curtis Cooper, a mathematician at the University of Central Missouri, went to the computer room after a busy day at work and routinely opened GIMPS to view the data.

Curtis Cooper was the discoverer of the forty-ninth Mersenne prime, having been a member of the Mersenne Prime Electron Frontier Foundation for seven years.

Since 10 years ago, he has been working to coordinate the promotion of GIMPS, hoping to get more volunteers involved.

Now, as long as he comes to work normally, Curtis Cooper will go to the computer in the computer room to take a look at it after the end of the day.

GIMPS is a distributed open network, and all information is open to the public, and anyone can log in to view it.

The display includes 'which numbers have been checked', 'how many CPUs are involved in the calculation', 'how many users are online', 'what is the total calculation time', and so on.

Of course, the 'newly verified Mersenne prime' is also indispensable.

For the last kind of information, Curtis Cooper didn't think about it at all, he thinks that the next Mason prime, at least two years to wait, because up to now, each number is too much to calculate, volunteers' personal computers, it takes a long time to verify a number, and if you can't do a complete test of the number, it means that the test will become useless, because the unfinished test will not be reported at all.

It is not possible for any software to monitor all the calculations, otherwise there would be no need for volunteers to participate.

Today, it seems that as usual, some numbers have been checked, and the number of users and CPUs logged in is still about the same.

Curtis Cooper took a closer look, and suddenly saw a special message --

"The new Mersenne prime number has been verified by the Chinese user WangHao, and the number is M6XXXXXX!" You can't pay attention to the font marked in red.

Curtis Cooper was stunned, he thought it was his old eyes dizzy, and he looked at it carefully over and over again before he was sure that the news was true.

He immediately logged on to the forum on the GIMPS website, and sure enough, there was already a lot of discussion on it.

"What's new, a new Mersenne prime has appeared! Wang Hao from China! ”

"He's so lucky!"

"It turned out to be a number starting with 6, in the middle of the 48th and 49th Mersenne primes, I always felt that there must be Mersenne primes in this range, but I didn't expect there to really be!"

"Chinese, rare, he should be the first Chinese to discover the Mersen prime, right?"

"It's really bullish that we are Chinese!"

"Friends, Mason primes know no borders!"

"I'm so jealous of him, my computer has been running for seven years and it turns out that there is nothing, nothing......"

"You're only seven years old, I've been fifteen years old, and I've changed four computers!"

Curtis Cooper looked at the news and was sure that a new Mersen prime had appeared, and he felt a little incredulous and immediately told the other heads of the Mason Prime Electronic Frontier Foundation about it.

There are three main persons in charge of the Mason Prime Electronic Frontier Foundation, one is for software development, one is for website and forum maintenance, and one is the original sponsor, and there is also a small organization, which is mainly responsible for publicity and funding activities, and has also promoted products related to Mason prime, but the promotion effect has been very poor.

For example, they promoted a T-shirt, but the price of the T-shirt could not keep up with the shipping cost, and there were very few buyers.

Of course, none of this matters.

Importantly, after learning about the news of the new Mersenne prime, they immediately released public information announcing the discovery of a new Mersenne prime.

"It is with great excitement that we announce that Wang Hao, a volunteer from China, has discovered a new Mersenne prime M6XXXXXX."

"We also need to replicate the results, which will be led by Professor Curtis Cooper from the University of Central Missouri."

"Although I dare not say it definitely, this result is a normal report of the software, and it is very likely to be true!"

Ocala City, Florida.

In a cramped rental room, Patrick Roche, with his hair disheveled, was watching the battle scene on a computer screen with excitement on his face.

At one point, it was boring.

Patrick Roche opened the browser indifferently and noticed the information released by GIMPS, he looked at it in a daze, and said to himself for a long time, "So, in the future, my name can't continue to be on the GIMPS website?" ”

"Go out to bubble, the capital of the girl is gone?"

"This Wang Hao is such a lucky bastard who stepped on shit......"

"WangHao, WangHao, strange, I seem to have heard this name?"

"Do I know any Chinese friends?"